Artifacts of a troubled time, this aircraft spotting wheel and identification model from World War II would have helped volunteers identify this Martin B-26 Marauder as an American bomber. Paul Sullivan Visit the Photo Place

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a Passion For Planes

As a kid during World War II, watching civil-defense volunteers watching for enemy planes, columnist gains an early fondness for all kinds of aircraft. By Paul Sullivan

Date published: 6/20/2009

IN THE EARLY years of World War II, the fear of aerial attack was palpable. Americans knew only too well the daily bombings our British Allies had withstood from waves of German planes.

We knew, too, that German submarines (U-boats, they were called) had ravaged American merchant shipping often within sight of our own shores, in what was called the Battle of the Atlantic. And we knew German saboteurs (undoubtedly to be called "terrorists" today) and spies operated in our midst.

There were other things we might not know for decades. The Japanese, our Pacific adversary, had cleverly released free-flying, bomb-carrying balloons to drift over the continental United States in hopes they would either do some physical damage or create mass fear.

That notion flopped, but it was apparently unreported that a Japanese submarine surfaced off the coast of Northern California and shelled an oil refinery with its deck gun. There, too, the damage was minimal and quickly contained.

But America was on edge and on guard, and the idea of civilians scanning the skies for approaching airplanes made good sense.

LOOKING FOR ENEMY PLANES

There were armies of volunteers involved in civil-defense duties. My dad, too old for the armed forces, joined their ranks, becoming a Civil Defense warden. Kids my age will long remember when the sirens sounded, all lights went out and the wardens went forth with their armbands, helmets and dimmed flashlights to patrol their blocks, warning those who had not doused their lights do turn them off, NOW! Woe be unto those who did not take the warnings seriously!

What we could not then know was that Adolf Hitler, the German madman who conducted that nation's war against us, would not and probably could not launch an aerial assault against the United States. For one thing, he had his hands full in a major three-front war fought in southern Europe, North Africa and Russia. It was enough to keep even the impressive German military machine fully occupied.

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Date published: 6/20/2009